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Welcome to Silicon Overdrive!

University of Pretoria — Fungal Genomics Proof-of-Concept (PoC)

About the Customer

The University of Pretoria is one of the top research institutions in Africa, and its mission is to be a leading research‐intensive university in Africa. It has been recognized internationally for its quality, relevance, and impact, as well as for developing people, creating knowledge, and making a difference locally and globally.

The Challenge

University of Pretoria’s on-premises infrastructure faced scalability limitations, particularly in supporting their genome sequence matching model, which requires high compute capacity. Their current setup could not efficiently scale to accommodate a growing number of users, including a group of master’s students needing access to the model and data.

To address this, the University of Pretoria approached Silicon Overdrive, an AWS Premier Tier Partner, to perform a Proof-of-Concept (PoC), deploying a high-compute instance in AWS to test the model and create a scalable use case for transitioning their workload to the cloud.

The Solution

Silicon Overdrive deployed the necessary infrastructure and High Performance Computing (HPC) instances in AWS, enabling the University of Pretoria to scale its genome sequence matching model. The setup was handed over to a senior developer, who facilitated testing with the group of master’s students, ensuring the model was accessible and functional.

To minimize costs, Silicon Overdrive leveraged PoC funding and AWS credits, effectively offsetting the expenses for professional services, making the project cost-neutral for the customer.

Throughout the PoC, Silicon Overdrive provided the University of Pretoria with ongoing support and guidance, ensuring a smooth transition from on-premises to their AWS cloud infrastructure.

The successful deployment not only addressed the immediate scalability challenges but also demonstrated the feasibility of fully migrating the workload to the cloud. This laid the foundation for future expansion and optimization of the customer’s research capabilities in a cost-effective and scalable manner.

The Outcome

The PoC was successful, and the University of Pretoria was very pleased with the results.

The m6a.24xlarge high-compute instance allowed 20 master’s students to run data queries and use the model simultaneously without any issues. With this successful test, the customer is now exploring the possibility of moving their entire workload to AWS as they assess the cost and benefits of a full-scale deployment.

The project showed that cloud scalability is achievable and paved the way for future growth.

Dr. Srinivasu Nadupalli, Deputy Director at the University of Pretoria, said, “My experience working with the Silicon Overdrive team was exceptional and professional. They assessed our challenge and were able to deliver precisely what the University required.”

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